Those Who Can

Nothing conveys quiet authority like a simple, commanding sense of style. We think so, anyway, and to test our theory, we asked every public-school principal in New York City to nominate the rising stars of their faculties. Here they are, some of the brightest hopes of the five boroughs, and when dressed up in the season's best shirts and ties, they're ready to begin class.

"Every time I walk into his classroom, he's sitting at a table listening to students as they demonstrate lab exercises. He's got students who line up at lunchtime and after school to work with him one-on-one and in small groups. Last year, he got his kids to do independent research on global warming, outside of all the other work they had to do for school. Do you have any idea how hard that is to do?" --Nominating principal Stephen M. Noonan

"One of the biggest problems schools face is student lateness, and Paul has taken it as his personal mission to solve it. At around 6:30 in the morning, he sometimes calls kids in his first-period class, the ones who are chronically late, to wake them up. They might not like it when their cell phones start buzzing, but it makes the kids think, Hey, Mr. Gerber cares if I'm in his class." --Nominating assistant principal Karen Polsonetti

"I've been doing this for twenty-eight years, and teachers like him just don't come around all that often. For him, it's not just a job -- he thinks about his students 24/7. I'll send him an e-mail at 11:00 at night, and he'll e-mail me right back. He makes sure that nothing stands in the way of them reaching their full potential, and that passion alone makes him extraordinary." --Nominating principal Randolph A. Ford

"We work in an all-girls school that's primarily for women of color, and last year we had the highest graduation rate -- 100 percent -- in New York City. Carlos is known for using his humor as a way to connect with kids. He's funny, telling the kinds of corny jokes that your old uncle would maybe tell, and the kids adore him. In a large way, I think they care about him because he's a man of color who hasn't abandoned them. So many inner-city families are broken up when the men in their lives take off, and Carlos hasn't done that, and he won't." --Nominating college counselor Chris Farmer

"You know how 19 to 25 percent of new teachers leave the system after a year? And then a third of the teachers say they'll leave after three years? And then in some places, it's like half leave after five years? Tadashi is the exact opposite. Over the years, he's committed himself more and more to making this his life, and he's made himself into a teacher leader." --Nominating principal Dr. Scott Conti

"We have a diverse community of students who speak many different languages, and Mario has responded by not only teaching them math but helping them learn and develop their English by bringing literacy strategies into their lessons. He knows they need it to succeed and he's giving it to them." --Nominating principal Valerie E. Sawinski

"This is Colin in a nutshell: One day he came to my office and said, 'I would love to start a GED program for the parents of this school.' He didn't say it in a faculty meeting or some other place where people would look at him and say, 'Isn't he a great guy!' He volunteered to me in private, knowing that he might have to give up one or two evenings a week to start the whole thing from scratch. I mean, he's a great guy, right?" --Nominating assistant principal Anne Piotrowski

"He's got what I call the teacher gene, and that can't be taught. He's always thinking about how to engage kids on their own terms, whether they have a supportive home life or have children of their own and are struggling to make ends meet. He takes the time to get to know his students and meets each of them where they're at." --Nominating principal Anne Fennelly